The Newton County School System Change Team recently participated in the second school improvement conference held at the Evergreen Conference Center in Stone Mountain.

The Change Team is also participating in the Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement (GLISI).

"It is a very intensive, excellent growth opportunity for our school leaders," said Superintendent Steve Whatley.

The purpose of the conferences was providing information to help educators increase graduation rates, reduce drop-out rates and improve overall student performance in their schools.

Participants are Holly Dubois, Shari Thomas and ReNae Malcom, all from Fairview Elementary; Scott Sauls and Brook Khodabakhsh from Cousins Middle; Dave Easterday, Debbie Stephens and Allison Jordan from Alcovy High; system Director of Testing and GPS Shelia Thomas; Associate Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Linda Hayden and Superintendent Steve Whatley.

Whatley said these administrators and teachers go above and beyond traditional professional development through participation in GLISI.

"We refer to them as GLISI-fied," Whatley said.

In other news from Tuesday night's board meeting:

 • The board approved dates for elementary and middle summer school as well as Georgia High School Graduation Test Remediation Summer School.

Elementary summer school will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. June 2 through 26, with no class on Fridays, at Middle Ridge Elementary School.

Summer school will be available only to third grade students who did not pass the reading portion of the CRCT and to fifth grade students who did not pass the reading or math section or both.

There is no tuition cost and the county will provide transportation.

Students will have an opportunity to re-take the CRCT on June 24 and 25.

Middle summer school will take place June 2 through 26, Monday through Thursday, for students who failed a class. Tuition is $150, except for eighth grade students who failed the reading or math sections of the CRCT.

First session will last from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and second session will last from noon to 3 p.m.

 Students zoned to attend Clements and Veterans Memorial will attend summer school at Clements and students zoned to attend Cousins and Indian Creek will report to Cousins.

Transportation will be provided.

 High school graduation test remediation will be held June 30 through July 11, except on July 4 at Newton High.

Re-test dates are as follows: science and language arts, July 14; social studies and math, July 15; writing, July 16.

For more information about summer school, contact the NCSS department of public relations at (770) 784-2908.

 • NCSS will hold a teacher job fair from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Eastside High School. Principals for the county's 21 schools will be on hand to interview applicants with teaching certificates, current résumés and a completed system application. Applications can be downloaded from www.newtoncountyschools.org/personnel.